tomcattech wrote on 2026-04-28, 21:31:

So I've got several systems up for sale on the "Book" marketplace and the amount of new folks interested in original vintage hardware that have any idea of what this stuff is currently going for are few and far between.

The days of picking up a fully working system in beige off the Bay for 25 dollars and 10 dollars shipping are long gone.

Obviously this is a hobby for me so I'm automatically looking for a loss, but some folks have come back to me with a rude awakening.... 🤣

Actually is very good thing, because if not, when we are old who the hell we sell all the accumulated junk? As far I remember you can’t eat it!

Not a unique thing, I have a '71 muscle car and for decades now I will have people come up and offer me a couple of grand for it where it would easily sell for over 10 to 15x that.

At the time they could not understand why such an old car would sell for almost as much as a new car would cost. (back then)

Personally I have seen prices of some old computers dropping a bit over the last year or so. In fact I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to get as much for my car now as I would have a few years back.

Grem Five wrote on 2026-04-29, 00:32:

Not a unique thing, I have a '71 muscle car and for decades now I will have people come up and offer me a couple of grand for it where it would easily sell for over 10 to 15x that.

At the time they could not understand why such an old car would sell for almost as much as a new car would cost. (back then)

Personally I have seen prices of some old computers dropping a bit over the last year or so. In fact I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to get as much for my car now as I would have a few years back.

Funny I've noticed the same thing with cars even with the crazy market.

I've see some nice 80-90s fox body mustangs lately.... (and let's face it they all need SOME work at that age) going for 2/3s what they used to.

But then again some brand new SUVs go for 80 grand..... so who knows these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I used to buy a computer nearly every month, but I stopped with that in 2019 because (1) prices were starting to get stupid and (2) shit was piling up here, and space is limited. I haven't bought a computer, old or new, since then.

I want an original voodoo PCI and even though I can afford it and realistically the asking price at market is not a meaningful amount of money to me personally, I still can't bring myself to spend that much on one. But the market is what it is, I think many people would be surprised at what 30-40 year old things are going for these days due to the nostalgia wave.

If anything I have seen an uptick in Pentium 4 demand and prices and to those people I got to say... Well bless their hearts.

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-04-29, 01:40:

I want an original voodoo PCI and even though I can afford it and realistically the asking price at market is not a meaningful amount of money to me personally, I still can't bring myself to spend that much on one. But the market is what it is, I think many people would be surprised at what 30-40 year old things are going for these days due to the nostalgia wave.

Agreed. Prices are stupid for many retro parts now. Voodoo cards, Awe64 Gold, Aureal Vortex 2, virtually all top end CPUs/GPUs from each generation.

For example:
The color beige immediately increases the value of an ATX case on the bay by 50-100 dollars.

Lots of base-level stuff is still available on the cheap; others, well...to put it this way: I have been tempted to put my working Roland LAPC-I up considering that what I make from its sale would more than cover the purchase of CM-32L (problem is finding one in the condition I like: all I see out there require Retrobrite which I am not familiar with how to apply properly).

tomcattech wrote on 2026-04-29, 16:50:

For example:
The color beige immediately increases the value of an ATX case on the bay by 50-100 dollars.

I wouldn't necessarily go by eBay as the best benchmark. eBay prices tend to be inflated.

I've found that locally prices tend to be less, in some cases much less.

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2026-04-29, 17:39:

(problem is finding one in the condition I like: all I see out there require Retrobrite which I am not familiar with how to apply properly).

I wouldn't bother with retrobriting, as it's just a temporary solution. I have a PC case that was retrobrited and it returned to being yellow in about a year.

For something like a CM-32 a better solution would probably be designing and 3D printing a whole new enclosure.

tomcattech wrote on 2026-04-28, 21:31:

So I've got several systems up for sale on the "Book" marketplace and the amount of new folks interested in original vintage hardware that have any idea of what this stuff is currently going for are few and far between.

The days of picking up a fully working system in beige off the Bay for 25 dollars and 10 dollars shipping are long gone.

Obviously this is a hobby for me so I'm automatically looking for a loss, but some folks have come back to me with a rude awakening.... 🤣

Not completely gone. I did pick up a nice pentium 1 with an awe 32 complete system for 30 dollars not long ago.

I also got a monster diamond voodoo 2 12 MB card for 75 dollars and another for 100. There are still great deals.
And a good reason to avoid all the posts selling systems for over 200 dollars. I know a good 30 to 50 dollar system will show up soon enough.

It's the same thing with video game consoles (and cars, etc). One or two generations old is dirt cheap, but prices jump way up once they hit that 25-30 year old nostalgia window. When people in their 40s can now afford the things they drooled over when they were in their teens, there's a market.

Sure, trying to find things locally is much better than the Bay, but depending where you are, it's pretty slim pickings. Seeing stories of people going to e-waste places and still finding 486s and ISA sound cards, etc is enviable.

With that in mind, I recently decided to at least grab what's currently cheap and available for me locally - Core 2 Duo systems and late 00's GPUs. Pretty unloved hardware right now, but who knows?

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-29, 19:09:

It's the same thing with video game consoles (and cars, etc). One or two generations old is dirt cheap, but prices jump way up once they hit that 25-30 year old nostalgia window. When people in their 40s can now afford the things they drooled over when they were in their teens, there's a market.

Sure, trying to find things locally is much better than the Bay, but depending where you are, it's pretty slim pickings. Seeing stories of people going to e-waste places and still finding 486s and ISA sound cards, etc is enviable.

With that in mind, I recently decided to at least grab what's currently cheap and available for me locally - Core 2 Duo systems and late 00's GPUs. Pretty unloved hardware right now, but who knows?

So true. I remember when Nintendo gamecube and Dreamcast hardware and games were dirt cheap. Stores were trying to shove them in your pocket as you left the store.

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-29, 19:09:

It's the same thing with video game consoles (and cars, etc). One or two generations old is dirt cheap, but prices jump way up once they hit that 25-30 year old nostalgia window. When people in their 40s can now afford the things they drooled over when they were in their teens, there's a market.

I've found console hardware not too bad. I picked up a couple Nintendos for about 20 bucks each a couple years ago.

Console games on the other hand have gotten a lot more expensive, especially the rare ones.